How someone may have attempted to insurance scam me tonight

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(Edited)

I'm going to start with my dinner tonight as everyone loves a burger! And the beauty of Hive when a Brit based in Philippines recommends a restaurant in my local city in UK. So thanks for a great recommendation @biggypauls, the burger was one of the best I've had in a while.
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Anyway, back to the purpose of this post, how someone may have attempted to insurance scam me.

We had just drove round the restaurant corner after dinner when hubby suddenly panicked and couldn't find the phone charger cable. You know how guys are with their gadgets and stuff. He wouldn't panic so much if he lost me!!! Anyway, I immediately pulled over in case I had dropped it as I was charging my phone last and we started to rummage for it.

Suddenly there was a little bang!!!!

My rental car, which I've only had for a day, has one of those press button for the hand brake and I'm still getting used to it. In hubby's panic looking for his cable I forgot to press the hand brake and I had rolled into the car in front!!! To be honest, it was only a very slight kiss as the road was flat. I immediately jumped out of the car as did the guy in front.
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At that's how the ordeal started

Alarm 1

The guy is a taxi driver and we both checked the cars at once. The impact was very very light as my car is a small Vauxhall Corsa. I wasn't expecting any dents or scratches. We both took photos and videos, and I asked him was there any scratches or dents from the impact. He said he didn't know and would report to the insurers tomorrow. That immediately raised alarm bells for me. I asked him on the spot if you don't know what the issues are now, how will you know tomorrow? He refused to answer me and asked for all my details. I'm ok with giving him the details as I'm legally obliged to do that, but his first comment was a big concern. We 'discussed' for about ten minutes, most of which I have on video. In the end he said "I'm going to call the police." I was fine with that as there was no damage and I'm not going to let him make false claims on me later on.
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Alarm 2

So he calls the police who said they will come when they come as it's not urgent. I didn't mind waiting, I have all the time in the world, he's the one working, not me. Then the guy talks about potential back pain and if he has a whiplash he will claim on me as well. Another alarm. A whiplash from a little kiss? I offered to go to the hospital with him immediately for a check up but he says they might not find anything now as these sort of things might take a few weeks to appear.

Alarm 3

So we're waiting for over an hour. He's starting to get impatient, or panic. I don't know which. He tries to persuade me to just give him my information and not waste everyone's time. Nice try, but he's the one who suggested to call the police. He says if he loses his job over this he will make a claim on me. Another alarm!!! All along I was videoing him to protect myself. He says he's going to report me to the police for taking a video of him - it is not illegal to take videos in public in UK. Then he starts to lose his temper with me taking videos and say don't try to post it on internet to be famous. And if I want to be famous he can make me famous and take a video of me. He starts to walk across to me and sticks his phone right in front of my face. It's one thing taking video of people at a distance in public, but another thing to stick a camera in a person's face. And that is breaking social distance rules!!!!

Anyway, an hour and a half later the police come along. I explain the situation, how I am still getting used to my rental and the hand brake button. I also explained why I was worried and insisted to wait for the police because the taxi driver couldn't identify damages on the spot but may do so at a later date, and that he said he might have whiplash, and if he loses his job he said he was going to make a claim on me. All valid concerns. The police's role isn't to mediate or resolve the issue, that's an insurance thing. But they looked at both vehicles and the road conditions and they couldn't see any damages either. The guy mentioned a potential whiplash again. Any experience driver, and the police knows that won't happen from a little kiss. The police were very reasonable, checked both our information and made sure we both exchanged details as required and then left. I felt a lot better that the police had come to witness the situation.


My eye has had little twitches all day today. The Chinese say if your eye twitches, either someone is talking about your behind your back or something not good is going to happen. I hope this little unpleasant incident is all there is to it.

UPDATE : The guy has reported it to his insurers, maybe trying his luck 🙃



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38 comments
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Oh goodness. I'm glad you had your wits about you and filmed the guy and waited for the police. It must have rattled you somewhat. Looks like he was a right opportunist, but an unsuccessful one I'll say. Whiplash - lol. Good on you!

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Thinking back and looking at my videos it was quite funny, he probably didn't realise I'm a local and think he can take advantage of a tourist.

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Whoa, that sounds very unpleasant @livinguktaiwan. Very glad to hear the police appear to have handled it in a professional manner. Once they appeared ...

"I hope this little unpleasant incident is all there is to it."

Yes, let the professionals at your insurance firm "run interference" for you, in settling that matter. That is what they are paid to do for you and your loved ones.

And hope that is the end of it!

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I don't think the police were very impressed when he mentioned a whiplash... the driver has reported it to his insurer overnight, probably think he'll try his luck. Need to take my car in to the rental company in a minute for them to see the 'non' damage. But i'm confident there's nothing he can claim.

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Looks like people are the same everywhere. I know this type of trick, have heard of it here as well. Especially taxi drivers, those are the worst as they try everything to earn some money. Good thing nothing serious happened.

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My husband says they might moonlight like this, but luckily it seems the police knows their little tricks as well.

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(Edited)

Pandemic panic scamming everyone is trying to make that easy dollar but his won't work what a goose 😅

Good thing you had the patients to wait for the police 👍

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Yes, I had all the time in the world, and it was a nice evening. He's the one who's working, and claims he lost businesss. Not my problem, he called my bluff and wanted to call the police, which actually works well for me

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Some people just don't know when to call it quits he will be the looser at the end you done well 🙂

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That sounds like quite the ordeal. Its a shame that some people try to take advantage of a situation like that when they are neither hurt nor is their any damage to their property. Its hard to trust people nowadays.

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There was absolutely no damage at all, maybe he thinks he's got nothing to lose as it won't effect his insurance as much like it does for us personal drivers

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Hahaha... Funny days... But wait, how is the burger? Is it HALAL meet or not?

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Oh dear! Thank goodness everything is good. This pandemic is producing more scammers in the already saturated market. I received scam phone calls almost every week. Some elderly people got scammed out of their life savings. They pretended to be bank officers, custom officers, charity organizations and whatever. Made me want to slap them if I could.

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I've heard of quite a few of those scamming phone calls as well. My sister got woken up at 6.30am one time from 'the bank' saying someone was trying to use her bank card to withdraw cash and she should follow their instructions immediately to transfer all her money to another account. Luckily she didn't fall for it.

But yeah, basically it's very annoying 😡

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How sad that there is always someone who wants to take advantage of such circumstances

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I think he may also think I'm a tourist as I was renting a car, a perfect target to scam😏

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I'm surprised he did not include loss of income in his list of potential damages against you. Him being delayed by over one and a half hours and not getting any fare during all that time. He obviously was out to get something from you which makes me to conclude that this isn't the first time it happened to him and he has had success in fleecing something out of those poor people who had the misfortune of bumping into him, no matter how small the damage is. Good for you for keeping your wits and I admire your hubby for keeping his cool despite his waving his phone in front of you and threatening you. I would have gone off the moon and tackled him right there and there.

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I wouldn't be surprised if he had that planned, he mentioned something about loss of income and having to turn down jobs on his app, as if I cared 😏. It's like if he mentions everything first it will strengthen his claim in future. He's not exactly the smartest guy.

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First... those fries/chips look delicious!

Second... good for you waiting that guy out. He sounds sketchy so having the police report is only going to be good for you in the long run.

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Hopefully it won't come to that.

He called up my car rental company three times before 9am the next morning!! Told them I hit him with full force! Think he's trying his luck because if he was going to make a claim he'd do it through his own insurance company amd not directly with my rental company. 😏

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Wonderful you and your husband kept cool and did everything by the book. By him putting his phone in your face there is a good possibility he was hoping for a physical reaction from you or your husband. Hard for any husband/father to keep their cool in a scenario like that. I'm sure everything will work out for you in the end because of the way it was handled. Good luck!

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I've spoken to my car rental insurers since, as the guy called them up directly, and not through his insurers. Anyway based on my version of the story, which is fact, they don't think he has a case, and they're going to see what prove he submits to them. They said if he has a strong case and it cost then less than lawyers fees they will pay him, but it won't be my responsibility. I asked my insurer not to pay him a penny! Hope they don't!

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Well done waiting for the police. Absolute typical scuzzball taxi driver. Lost his job? He's self-employed! Tricks they get up to....
I had exactly the same situation about 12 years ago. Barely touched the taxi, no damage claimed for by them as I had photos, it was in broad daylight but yet their injury claim was for thousands. I had a call from an injury lawyer within 2 hours of the bump! They were investigated by the insurance company's fraud department who decided to fight him in court. On the guys injury claim, he stated he could no longer play with his kids, ride horses!! or do any ironing. He was of course still driving.
He lost the case but was never charged with fraud. I lost my no-claims despite it not costing my insurance anything.
Total scum.
Again. Good for you for not backing down.

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What!! You lost your NCB over a fraudulent claim?? How ridiculous!! And surely it must be a crime to make false insurance claims!!

Sometimes I think for these type of situations, it's better to not have such a well established system for claims. I can't imagine them bothering to try that in say Thailand (?) coz they know they won't succeed. You need a cowboy system for cowboy claims 😁

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